What is Copilot?

“What is Copilot?” is the new question people are asking as interest in AI continues to rise. Funnily enough – not so long ago – people instead asked, “What is ChatGPT?”

I’m tempted to say that Copilot is a ChatGPT rival, but it’s worth noting that, thanks to Microsoft’s partnership with OpenAI, the large language models (LLM) underlying Copilot Also powerChatGPT. (More on that later.)

As such, a better explanation is that Copilot is a competitor to Google Gemini (formerly Bard) and its ilk.

What is Copilot?

Copilot is an AI-powered tool found on Windows 11 and other platforms. You can open it from an icon on the taskbar, or you can simply launch it via the Copilot keyboard key that’s now available on some of the best Windows PCs.

Windows 11 Copilot is most prominently located in the right panel as users’ AI companion. It allows you to perform a wide range of tasks, including the following:

You can even ask Copilot questions based on text conversations on your phone (which you have linked to your PC).

My personal favorite, however, is Copilot’s integration with Paint. For example, the AI ​​Assistant allows you to quickly extract the background from image uploads with just the click of a button.

And those tasks aren’t even superficial. You can use Copilot to customize your Windows 11 settings, including organizing your windows and enabling dark mode.

With Windows 11 on a PC, you can use Copilot without paying any additional fees, as long as you have a Microsoft account. You can also access the free version of Copilot at copilot.microsoft.com in your browser. You can even download Copilot from Google Play and the Apple App Store for a smooth mobile experience that, again, is free.

According to Microsoft, Copilot’s free tier gives you access to GPT-4 (and GPT-4 Turbo during off-peak hours). It’s worth noting that these are the same LLMs you’ll find powering OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

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Copilot for Microsoft 365 Apps

If you want to take it a step further, you can also use Copilot for Microsoft 365 apps.

However, you will have to pay $20 per month for a Copilot Pro subscription, which at the time of writing comes with a free trial.

With Copilot Pro you can experience AI magic in productivity apps like Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. Here is a non-exhaustive list of what Copilot Pro can do for you:

• Summarize email threads in Outlook

• Summary of discussions in Microsoft Teams

• Transform existing documents into a complete deck of cards in PowerPoint

• Ask questions about an Excel natural language dataset

• Get help with writer’s block in Word

OpenAI’s GPT-4 Turbo supports Copilot in the “Pro” plan – even during peak hours. However, Microsoft recently announced that the new GPT-4o model will “soon” support Copilot Pro.

Access Copilot via Surface laptops

Another way you can access Copilot is through a series of devices Microsoft is calling “Copilot+ PCs,” starting with the newly announced Surface Laptop 7 and Surface Pro 11. Both feature something called an NPU, a processor that is designed to facilitate AI processing.

Microsoft calls these “the most powerful Windows PCs in the world” – and they have the most advanced Copilot features. The NPUs in these PCs give Copilot an edge in features and performance that other previously mentioned Copilot-powered platforms cannot deliver.

According to Microsoft, the aforementioned Copilot+ PCs let you quickly edit a photo directly in Explorer (e.g., remove background).

You can even get a summary through your notifications, whether it’s a text or an email. So if you tend to have a verbose friend who writes long paragraphs about their tragic love life, you can just get the “CliffNotes” instead.

One of the most interesting features, and perhaps the most controversial, is Recall, which is like pressing “CTRL + H” (or “Command + Y” for macOS users) for your entire digital life. Recall uses AI to record your PC activities throughout the day – and you can use a search bar to retrieve things from your past via natural language.

For example, if you came across a blue dress while shopping online but forgot to bookmark it, you can use Recall to find it.

Keep in mind that Mashable plans to test both the Surface Laptop 7 and the Surface Pro 11, so we’ll let you know if they’re worth the investment for Copilot-interested consumers.

Copilot also benefits the enterprise sector (i.e. Microsoft 365 Business). Coders and developers use it too (i.e. GitHub Copilot).

But to keep it short, we’re focusing on Copilot for the average consumer. As the AI ​​race heats up, it’s only a matter of time before Microsoft adds more features to Copilot’s current list of capabilities, so stay tuned for our coverage of any upgrades.